Catalogue: Medical Monographs

Fī taqdimat al-ma‘rifah wa-ahkām al-burhān (MS A 27, item 4)

(On Diagnosis and Prognosis and the Determination of the Crisis)

فى تقدمة
المعرفة واحكام البرهان

Anonymous

The manuscript at NLM contains the second part only (second fann) of an unidentified and apparently anonymous treatise on medical prognosis. Quotations from the commentary by Ibn al-Nafīs on the Hippocratic treatise on prognostics are contained in the margins of the treatise. For the influential Hippocratic treatise on prognostics, see (MS A 27) the section on Hippocratic writings.

Fī taqdimat al-ma‘rifah wa-ahkām al-burhān(MS A 27 item 4)

Illustrations

MS A 27, fol. 41b

The opening of the second section (fann) of an unidentifed treatise on prognostics, with extensive marginal quotations from the commentary by Ibn al-Nafīs on the Hippocratic treatise on prognostics. Space was left for an illuminated opening which was not filled in. The copy was made in 1584/992.

Physical Description

Arabic. 35 leaves (fols. 41b-75a). Dimensions 24 x 13.6 (text area 16.3 x 6.8) cm; 19 lines per page. The title is given on fol. 41b, line 2. Quotations from the commentary by Ibn al-Nafīs, here referred to as Qurashī, are in the margins of the treatise occupying fols. 41b-75a. The treatise written at the center of the pages is on prognostics, but its author is unidentified; the title of the central treatise is given on fol. 41b, line 2, as Fī taqdimat al-ma‘rifah wa-ahkām al-burhān. According to the heading on fol. 41b, this copy contains only the second part (fann) of the unidentified treatise; this fann is then subdivided into chapters (maqalahs). Space has been left for an illuminated opening, which was not filled in.

The text was copied by the same scribe as recorded the first and third items in the volume. The first item in the volume was completed on 5 Rajab 992 [= 13 July 1584] by an unnamed scribe in Shahr Daylaman. The latter was a town in Persia in borough of Daylaman, which lay south-west of the large settlement of Lahijan close to the southern coast of the Caspian Sea, in the ancient Iranian province of Daylam (see the article "Daylam" by V. Minorsky in EI (2nd ed.), vol. 2, pp. 189-194).

The central text is written in a medium-small, compact, elegant and professional naskh script in black ink with headings in red and red overlinings. The text area has been frame-ruled. There are catchwords.

The marginal annotations containing extracts from the commentary by Ibn al-Nafīs appear to be by the same copyist.

The burnished, glossy beige paper has lightly scattered fibres, vertical slightly curved laid lines, and faint single chain lines (but no watermarks). The paper is waterdamaged and stained with thumbing and grease. The edges have been trimmed from their original size, and some of the marginal commentaries have been cut off.

The volume consists of 77 leaves. Fol. 1a is blank except for an incorrect title in a later hand and the trace of an owner's note. The first item (fols. 1b-38a) contains the anatomical sections from the Qānūn of Avicenna (MS A 27, item 1); the second item (fols. 38b-39b) is Kashf ba‘d al-lughah min al-Qānūn wa-ghayrihi, an anonymous commentary on terms in the Qanun (MS A 27, item 2); and the third item on fol. 41a is a short anonymous essay on oxymel (MS A 27, item 3). The fourth item (fols. 41b-75a) is the item here catalogued, and the final item (fols. 75b-76b) contains magical procedures and invocations useful for illness (MS A 27, item 5). Fols. 40a and 77b are blank; fols. 40b and 77a are blank except for an owner's annotations.

Binding

The volume is bound in brown leather library binding. There are modern paper pastedowns and endpapers.

Provenance

On fol. 40b there is a note stating that the owner (malik) is Isḥāq, the physician in Damascus (tabib fi Damashq al-sham) in the year 1240 [= 1824-5]. On fol. 77a there are various owners' notations, including the statement that this volume is the Kanz al-atibba' (The Treasure of Physicians) belonging to al-faqir Ishaq the physician (al-tabib) in the year 1251 [= 1835-6] and another statement that this Kanz al-atibba' belonged to one of the skilled wound-healers (ahad min al-hudhdhaq al-sabur) Isḥāq Dhilṭā al-Yahūdī, medical practitioner in Damascus (al- mutaṭabbib fi Dimashq al-Sham); this is presumably the same owner. His assistant (‘abd) is named, on both fol. 77a and in yet another signature on fol. 38a, as Ibraham Rumanu tabib. On fol. 1a the title Kanz al-atibba' is repeated. On the basis of these owners' notes, Sommer incorrectly catalogued this manuscript as a copy of a treatise titled Kanz al-atibba' written by Malik Isḥāq, a Jewish physician of Damascus (see Schullian/Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 306 entry A 27).

The volume was purchased in 1941 by the Army Medical Library from A. S. Yahuda who acquired it in Cairo. NLM MS A 23 was acquired in Cairo in the same lot. On the front endpaper several earlier labels have been pasted, including one giving the designation "ELS 1665" and two smaller ones "M[ed.] 44".

References

Schullian & Sommer, Cat. of incun. & MSS., p. 306 entry A 27 [this item is incorrectly catalogued as a copy of a treatise titled Kanz al-atibba' written by Malik Ishaq, a Jewish physician of Damascus]; Hamarneh, "NLM" p. 82, where it is said that it is a compilation made by "a certain Jewish Physician, Malak Ishaq of Damascus, possibly of the early Mamluk period", and it is stated that the copy was made in Shar Dilman.

NLM Microfilm Reel: FILM 48-117 no. 3

NLM has one manuscript (MS P 29) that has 35 short Persian treatises written in the margins, surrounding the main Persian text in the center of each page which is a copy of the Persian version of Kitāb ‘Ajā’ib al-makhlūqāt wa-gharā’ib al-mawjūdāt (Marvels of Things Created and Miraculous Aspects of Things Existing) written in the 13th century by Zakarīyā’ ibn Muḥammad al-Qazwīnī. Amongst these 35 marginal treatises are three concerned with diagnosis by palpitation of the pulse. Two of the treatises are concerned in particular with the diagnosis of lovesickness from changes in the pulse when the name of the loved one is mentioned.

Muqaddimah-i nabz(MS P 29, marginal item 4)

(Introductory Treatise on the Pulse)

مقدمه نبض

Anonymous

No author is supplied for this introductory essay on diagnosis by pulse.

Physical Description

The manuscript (P 29) which contains these three items is undated but signed by the scribe, Sayyid Husayn Yazdi. There is a portrait of a scribe immediately below the colophon giving the scribe's name (fol. 173a). The volume must have been completed before 1546/953 H, when an owner's stamp for one ‘Imād al-Dīn Zakarīyā’ ibn Muḥammad ibn Maḥmūd Limūnī was placed in the volume. It appears to have been copied in India.

The text is written in the same hand as the main text in the volume. The marginal text is written in a small, compact, professional, and elegant ta‘liq tending toward naskh script in black ink with headings in red and red overlinings. There are catchwords for the central text, which is enclosed in frames of blue, red, gilt, and black lines. The marginal text is written in short diagonal lines between the frame enclosing the central text and a larger frame of blue, gilt, and black lines.

The glossy yellow-brown paper is moderately thin with only laid lines visible. There is some water damage near the edges, and the edges have been trimmed from their original size. Fols. 1 and 173 have been reinforced.

Binding

The volume is bound in pasteboards covered with dark-brown leather. On the covers there are gold-tooled frames filled with acanthus leaves, with flowers or a star in the center and corners. The spine has gold-stamped flowers and a border. The binding is not original. There are modern pastedowns and endpapers.